A/N: It's time, everyone. The infamous 75th boss fight is upon us- but just how will events play out? You all know that the story is to conclude only after all 100 floors have been cleared, but how shall this be accomplished? Will Kayaba remain hidden? Will the Black Cats all make it out alive?
Read, review, and most important of all, enjoy!
P.S. Angel and Ion are courtesy of the writer, Ion Gree.
The goal is close, the time has come
The journey nears its end
But is the promise built on lies?
Or a truth you've always known?
Truth
"Half the recon team?!" Saphira sputtered, hardly daring to believe what we had just heard. "How?! How did ten players that have made it this high up in SAO get wiped out like that?!"
We two, along with the leaders of the other front-line guilds, were once again in the halls of Heathcliff's home base in order to discuss the upcoming boss fight. We had received the invitation from Klein less than an hour ago, but he said that it was an urgent matter. Even for a milestone boss, this sounded like it was going to be a risky battle, if the preliminary report was anything to go by.
The leader of SAO's top guild regarded my sister coolly before he answered, "We're not entirely sure. After making their way to the boss room, the Assault Team followed standard protocol and sent in a team of twenty people from various guilds to scout it. As per the norm, ten players opened the doors and went inside so that the others could stay back and take note of the boss' attack patterns and sword skills. However, unlike every other boss fight so far, the doors closed after the ten players made it inside, locking the others out for about a minute."
"Let me guess," I muttered when he paused. "They were all dead when the door opened."
"Along with no sign of what had killed them," Heathcliff admitted. "Thinker of the Aincrad Liberation Forces confirmed that the names we sent him were all crossed out on the Wall of History. We can only assume that this boss room also contained an anti-crystal trap, and I think it would be prudent for us to assume the same of every boss fight from now on."
"I think it'd be prudent if you keep my team informed of the situation," I growled at him, ignoring the wary looks being thrown my way. "We're the ones that found the boss chamber in the first place!" It was true- just two evenings ago, we had alerted the other guild leaders to the development, as well as passed our map data along via Argo. At the time, we had agreed to give it another couple of days for some of the guilds to finish their levelling quotas in order to be ready for a milestone boss fight. "You guys really think that tricking our guild into staying away from a boss raid is the best idea?!"
Before the older man could reprimand me, Klein surprised us all by saying, "Kid's right, Heathcliff. You shouldn't have tried to do this without the Moonlit Black Cats."
"Are you saying that we should have sent in one of his guild mates to die instead of another?" Heathcliff answered, maintaining that cool attitude of his that was really starting to get under my skin.
"Maybe no one would have had to die if I or one of my associates had been there," I snapped back. "Sinon, Strea, and I have seen things in dungeons that you wouldn't believe, even in a world like SAO. I've run into a dungeon like the one that you've described once before, and the stonework in it was unlike anything I'd ever seen in a boss room until then."
"Where?" That was Schmitt, looking incredibly puzzled. "And how come we haven't heard about it?"
"It's in the catacomb labyrinths that run underneath the first floor, near the place where I found the GM console," I answered quickly. "Sinon and I noticed that the more of Aincrad gets explored, the more pathways in that dungeon become available. And the further down you go, the greater the danger multiplies." Kind of like how the Hollow Area continues to evolve its difficulty settings the stronger than the top players get.
Truthfully, the trap that I had encountered was set in the Hollow Area, but I knew that similar traps did exist in the subterranean dungeon. Hopefully Kayaba, if he was in the room, would remain ignorant to the fact that I had been using the secret world this whole time.
"What was in that trap that you found?" Klein asked, his voice mixture of eagerness and apprehension. "What did it look like?"
"The room didn't look like much at first," I recounted, my eyes sliding half-closed as I recalled the memory of that grueling battle alongside the rest of the Fifth Commandment. "But before the battle got started, I realized that the walls were painted a dark orange in patterns that kind of reminded me of a flame. Once the battle got started, and the boss appeared, the whole room glowed like a creepy red sun had popped up on the ceiling."
"That first part matches the description of our scouts," Godfrey, the other commanding officer from the KOB, confirmed as he looked over at his leader. "We can't verify the second part, but that sounds right to me."
"And the boss?" Schmitt prompted.
"It was called the 'Void Reaper'," I answered with a slight shudder. For the most part, the monsters in SAO, even the bosses, usually didn't have the ability to unnerve me anymore. That one, however… "It looked like a giant centipede skeleton made out of pure hatred. If I had my way, I'd just as soon as forget I even saw it." This gave even the other veteran players pause- if such a monster existed that I could admit my reluctance to face something like that again, it was not a creature to take lightly.
"We don't know that what's waiting for us will be anything like that," Ion said as he smacked his fist into his palm. "We shouldn't make a plan based on what-if's and maybes. That's gotten too many of us killed in the past." The others in the group murmured their agreements, and to be fair, he had a point. Without any way to know for certain what was waiting for us, we couldn't lay down concrete strategies to give our comrades a fighting chance that turned out to be a death trap. I remembered the first boss fight all too well.
"So what do we do now?" I asked of the others. "The quest NPC's never gave us any real information to go off of, so we're pretty much flying in blind. And we have no way to gather intelligence ourselves. The only way I see it, we need to go in with maximum force and hope that we have enough power to muscle our way past this thing, whatever it is."
"Much as I dislike to say it, I agree with the Red Swordsman," Heathcliff murmured. "We cannot afford to stall here. This will likely be our most challenging battle for some time, and if we do not overcome this hurdle before doubt begins to set in, we may well lose the support of the other players in the game."
"It's hard enough getting the stuff we need these days as it is," Klein mused with a disgruntled look on his face. "It's like people have stopped caring about whether or not we go home."
"To be fair, I can kinda sympathize with that line of thought," Saphira admitted surprising even me. Seeing the looks being given to her, she shrugged and asked, "What? Think about it from the perspective of someone who's been in here for almost two years without any real sign that they're getting out anytime soon. Life in here really isn't so bad. We don't have to worry about our jobs, or paying bills other than rent, and you can nix that if you get enough money together to buy a house. The red guilds are gone, and most of the yellow players are too scared to risk my brother going full-on psycho mode again- no offense-"
"Some taken."
"-to do anything illegal, the safe zones pretty much live up to their name these days. People have grown comfortable in here, and going back means that we're gonna face some rough times. Given all of that, I can understand why a lot of people don't care about the fight anymore."
"Is there a 'but' coming up anytime soon…?" Klein asked expectantly.
"You're a butt," Saphira and I said simultaneously, followed by a hi-five. Before he could really get mad, my sister asked him, "Remember how, a few days after the game went live, a lot of players suddenly passed out for a few hours?" When he confirmed that he did, she explained, "We're pretty sure that was us getting moved into hospitals for life support. But even with modern technology, we can only survive for so long like that."
"What's the longest we can last?" I decided to cut in. "Five years? Six? Add in our constant exposure to these microwaves, you can bet that the kids and older people in SAO won't even make it that far. We're on a time limit, folks, plain and simple. And I didn't spend a year staining my hands black with blood so that all the innocent people in this deathtrap could only last a few extra months or years."
"Not to mention our hands," Ion grumbled.
"Let it go," Saphira warned him, her hand unconsciously going back to grasp at Deathcalibur's handle.
"Down, Sis," I murmured, though I secretly wondered just how badly she'd scare the crap out of the other boy if I'd said nothing. In a louder tone, I went on to say, "From now on, you all need to trust that I am on your side. I want to free everyone in SAO as much as you do, if not more. So I expect that when you guys gear up for the fight of our lives, you'd better have us on speed dial."
"…Will Kirito and Sachi return to fight if you ask them?" Heathcliff inquired.
"They've pledged their swords to the boss fight, and they are still more than capable of holding their own on the front lines," I said with a sharp grin. "What happens after we clear the floor, I'm not totally sure. But you can bet that they won't be on their honeymoon forever."
"As long as Kirito returns to command your guild, we will contact you for the fight to come," Heathcliff promised.
I didn't trust that assurance as far as Silica could kick the man, so I turned to Klein with a raised eyebrow. Meeting my eyes without wavering, he gave me a single nod. "Agil will get you guys," he told us.
"Then I'll tell Kirito to be ready," I said as Saphira and I turned to go. "The Moonlit Black Cats have some new surprises in store for the bosses of Aincrad, and I doubt you lot will want to miss the view."
"What's the dealio?" Yuuki asked as I walked into the living room, where most of the girls were either reading or talking quietly over some drink or other.
"Boss raid, tomorrow at the latest," I replied as I opened my menu and started typing out a message to our leader. "We're all going in, full force."
"Wait a sec, all of us?" Rivka asked, looking surprised by the declaration, as did a few of the others.
"Where's the fire?" Kiriha joked.
"The Assault Team put together a recon group, and half of them were killed by the boss in less than a minute," Saphira said flatly, immediately sucking any sense of humor out of the room. "The doors locked on them as soon as they went inside, and they couldn't use teleport crystals to get out."
Sinon visibly winced at that, and it took a lot to rattle her. "That means that our healing and status-curing crystals won't work in this fight, either," she muttered. "This is sounding like a boss fight from the Hollow Area."
"It gets even better," I grumbled as I finished sending Kirito the message. "You remember the Hollow Reaper?"
"…You're kidding."
"Nope."
"Did we miss something?" Philia asked as she and Silica put down their books on the table. "Yuuki and I went to a lot of places in the Hollow area, but we never ran into anything higher than a Named Monster. You're saying that there were actual floor bosses in there?"
"Yeah, but Crimson and Strea never took you anywhere near 'em," Sinon informed them. "Even we stayed away from them unless we were armed with fresh gear, a crap load of potions, and every Hollow that we could get to fight alongside us."
"Saphira?" Rivka turned to my sister. "Did you ever fight one?"
"Nope," she answered vehemently. "I saw a squad of Hollows go into one of those places, and it wasn't pretty. I knew that even I wouldn't be able to solo that kind of thing."
"Yikes," was all that Kiriha could think to say.
"Yeah, and since we haven't been able to get any real info out of the quest NPC's, we're flying blind," I informed them, leading to more uneasy glances between the lot of them. "Our best chance to win this is through sheer numbers." Glancing around, I then asked, "Where are Strea and Rain?"
"Rain's getting fitted for some new equipment with Liz and Erika in the Hollows' room," Silica piped up. "Miss Strea went to visit Yui again."
Then hopefully she gets the message from Kirito, I mused silently. Out loud, I said, "No field trips today. Gear up and practice your sword skills out back with backup equipment- we need our prime stuff as fresh as possible. Sinon, go get Rain and fill her in on what we're doing." I clicked my fingers twice and patted my left shoulder, prompting my dragon to leap from where he had been resting on the windowsill and land on my collar, where he dutifully awaited his next set of instructions.
Within ten minutes, the nine of us were hard at work, practicing our combat skills and reaction times against each other in pairs. I made sure to have the matchups as awkward as possible for the lower-level players, seeing as we would be dealing with a lot of unknowns when we went to fight the boss. For example, I had Silica, a dagger-wielder with incredibly short range, going up against Yuuki, a player with lightning reflexes and two swords that left the little girl pretty much on the defensive, though I'm also sure that our dual-wielder was giving her more than a few openings to take advantage of. Saphira took turns walking between the other matches, occasionally volunteering to switch places with one our friends, but never staying any longer than a match that she had finished.
I myself had decided to test my mettle against Rain in order to get a feel for just how skilled she really was. Yuuki had spoken at length about her abilities, but I never could bring myself to take someone else's word for it when it came to combat prowess. I needed to see her power- or lack of power- for myself.
It was for this reason that I had invited her to stay with us until the floor was cleared, after which I would make a decision with Kirito about whether or not she would be allowed to join us. Rain had eagerly accepted these terms, and Yuuki and Saphira seemed more than happy at the chance to make new friend. Philia and Rivka still seemed reluctant to trust the newcomer, each for their own reasons, but they had said nothing outright hostile to her, either.
Even as the others' weapons collided in the background, I drew my backup sword, the Rising Dawn, and let the fire come to life as I waited for Rain to make the first move. She readied her own sword, which looked like a random monster drop, nothing too impressive.
"Ready?" she asked me as she settled into a combat stance that I had seen many one-handed sword users utilize.
"Waiting on you."
"But…" She hesitated here, leading me to smile inwardly. "You don't look like you're taking this very seriously."
"Give me a reason to take you seriously, and I will."
Her face reddened with a bit of anger, and she set her delicate jaw a little more firmly. "Okay, you asked for it," she said in a lower voice that I found much more promising than the more-or-less carefree attitude that she had been displaying up until then.
However, even I was taken aback by how fast she rushed me with a stab that would have cut into my neck if my own reflexes weren't razor-sharp. Weaving my body to the side as she came close, I spun around and kicked her behind the knee, sending her crashing to the ground with an audible grunt of surprise. "Good speed, but you're too straightforward," I commented dryly, still trying to see what she would do if she got really worked up. "I can see how that NM got the better of you yesterday, if that's how you really fight."
"Okay, kid gloves are officially coming off," the girl scowled as she got back to her feet, her golden eyes sparking as she faced me again. Her sword lit up with a blue glow that I recognized as the hue of the Seven Deadly Sins technique. It was an attack not easily dodged or parried, but I was more than up to the challenge. It was, however, enough to make me put Rising Dawn into a more defensive position while I waited for her to make the first move again.
When she did move, it was actually in a way that took me off-guard. Before executing the sword skill, she flipped the sword by its handle to hold it in reverse, and then unleashed the potent attack, still completely guided by the system's auto-assist. This wasn't a unique skill by any means, but most players I knew of that had tried out the reverse-hand passive skill decided that their sword felt too awkward with such a grip. Clearly, this was not the case with Rain. Her speed was respectable, even by my standards, and she nearly got me with the surprise factor, but I was still one of the top duelists in SAO for a reason.
Leaping backwards to escape the new angle that she had on me instead of backpedaling step-by-step like most people would have done, I let her get in a couple more swings in order to determine the range of her strikes. On the fifth movement in the combo, I was able to predict the path that her blade would travel, and I swung my own sword to counter.
Our weapons clashed with a ringing sound, but then I was really in for a surprise. Rain, now smiling, grabbed the sword with her left hand in the traditional style right before she let go of the reverse grip that she had started with. This allowed her to change her trajectory once again, and follow through with the last two sword swings, the second of which actually cut my arm, deep enough that it would have nicked the bone on my real body.
Instead of pressing the advantage that I could once the post-motion paralysis kicked in, I stepped back and shut off my sword's fire before plating the blade in the grass and holding up my hand as an indication to stop the match. "Huh?" she protested as soon as she was able to move again. "We just got started!"
"I needed to see what you could do," I replied, trying my best to hide the fact that I was very impressed behind a façade of calm demeanor. "You can do more than enough, by my mark. I've never encountered somebody that could utilize a reverse style so effectively."
"Are you slacking over there?" Sinon called out. She currently had a fuming Kiriha in a headlock, which left her more or less free to talk for a moment.
"She's good," I admitted as I gestured to Rain, who brightened up with a big smile at that. "One sword skill was enough to put a scratch on me."
"Hey, just because she's cute doesn't mean that you should go easy on her," my partner teased me, causing my face to darken with annoyance, while Rain turned away with red cheeks.
I'm gonna get her back for that, I vowed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rivka pause and look in my direction, a strange look on her face. It was like a bizarre combination of anger and fear mixed together. Is she… jealous?
I wasn't stupid- I knew how she felt about me, and I certainly cared for her beyond the sense of platonic. However, I had already laid out my reasons for why we couldn't be together- why I couldn't be with anybody. She doesn't seriously think that I'm passing her over for a girl we just met, does she?
Before I could make up my mind about whether or not to question her, a familiar voice called out to us from the veranda. "Hey, guys! Look who I found!" We all turned to look up at Strea, who was waving at us excitedly in front of Kirito, Sachi, and to my slight irritation, Yui.
"Hey!" Saphira called back as she moved to greet the quartet. "Is that cutie over there the little girl I've heard so much about?"
"Everyone, this is Yui," Kirito announced as our two groups mingled. "Say hello- everyone here is nice." The little girl/AI hid behind Sachi, only peeking out around her skirt to get a glimpse of our guild.
"Except this guy," Philia smirked as she nudged my ribs.
I ignored her in favor of asking, "You guys got my message, then?"
"Yes," Sachi replied, her eyes looking sad. "I can't believe that the boss killed so many people so fast."
"I wouldn't have sent you a message if I had thought that we could handle it on our own," I said with an apologetic tone. "After this, you guys can go back to your vacation for a bit." Looking right at Kirito, I added, "We need to talk."
"Okay." Giving Yui a pat on the head and his wife a kiss on the cheek, he followed me to a spot that was a few dozen yards away, where we could speak in relative private. "What's up?"
"What are you gonna do with Yui while we're out?" I asked him in a lowered tone. "She's not capable of fighting like Strea is. She exists as an MHCP, albeit a damaged one, but Strea's code was written onto a blank player's data. So there's no way that we can cover for her, not if the upcoming fight is gonna be as bad as we think it is."
"Calm down," he urged me. "We talked to Strea about it, and she's gonna instruct the Hollows in the house to look after her while we're on the boss raid, or any time that we go out into the field. This way, we don't lose any manpower-"
"More like girl power in our case, but I see your point."
"Right," he chuckled as he turned around in order to get a better look at our group. "Is that the new girl? Rain, right?"
"Yeah, she's very skilled," I admitted, causing him to look back at me in surprise. Seeing this, I flattened my voice and said, "I'm not so arrogant that I can't be honest about someone else's skills. She was able to cut me after only two exchanges."
"That fast?" he inquired, looking more impressed now. "When was the last time that happened?"
"Never, though I haven't actually gone up against Yuuki or my sister one-on-one yet," I replied. "Even still, Rain has real talent. Much as I don't really like making new friends, we'd be pretty stupid to pass her over if she wants to join us."
"I don't have a problem with it," my leader nodded. "Should we send her an invite, and make it official?"
"Not yet." He turned back to me, another question written on his face. "I'm having Strea run a background check on her from the Hollow Area, just in case. She seems clean so far, but you never know."
"What could possibly make you suspect her of-?"
"She holds a great deal of admiration for what I did as the Red Swordsman."
"…Okay, so she might be a little eccentric, but I see your concern," he conceded. "All right, we'll wait on the invite for now. Should we talk strategy until we get the meeting time? You said that we don't have a lot of Intel to go off of."
"Try none at all."
"Seriously?"
"Does this look like the face of a joke to you?"
"…"
"Don't you dare answer that."
The raid took place at two o'clock that afternoon, and we were all scheduled to gather in the seventy-fifth town square. Collinea was a city that clearly took inspiration from the architecture of Rome, and the plaza in front of the main teleport gate was the biggest one I'd seen since floor forty. All of the elite guilds of SAO were present, and there were more than a few dirty looks thrown my way as soon as we were recognized.
I met their hostility unflinchingly, ignoring them in favor of watching Litrosh and Pina play-fighting in front of a water fountain, where a few more friendly faces could be seen. "Yo!" Klein called over with a smile and a wave. Next to him was Agil, who had messaged us about the raid's timing, also looking glad to see us. The rest of Fuurinkazan were milling about, none of them looking very welcoming to me, but they weren't mad, either.
As we approached them, I also noticed Ion and Angel, the only other players besides Agil and Rain on the front lines that hadn't joined a guild yet. I paused when Ion came to stand in front of me, wary of the fact that his rapier was within easy reach. Despite it being a safe zone, I didn't really feel like an altercation right now, especially given what was to come. I was also aware of the fact that Sinon had a throwing knife in her leg sheathe, as well as a heavier blade on her hip, and that she would use them without hesitation if things started to get ugly.
"Hello, Mataras," Angel said as she stood beside her partner. "It's been a long time."
"Good afternoon," I replied politely. "I'm glad to see that you're keeping well." It was true- Angel was a kind girl who I knew had a hand in caring for some of the victims of yellow guilds, despite being busy on the Assault Team.
Her gaze softened a little bit as she looked over to see Saphira giggling at something that Kirito was saying, which had apparently distressed Agil a fair amount. "I had heard that she was back," she murmured. "I'm happy that you're not alone anymore."
"Mataras, why are you here?" Ion suddenly asked. "Really?"
I frowned and answered, "I've already told you guys. I'm here to fight on your side, to free the people trapped in SAO."
"If that's the case, then why haven't you told us who Akihiko Kayaba is?" the other boy asked sternly. "You remember everything else- why not that?"
"First of all, no, I don't remember everything," I said with a little heat in my own tones. "I still have a few gaps in my memory that I'm starting to wonder if they'll ever come back. Second of all, the instant that I do remember who he is, I'll let everyone know by ripping out his guts in front of the entire Assault Team. Until then, I'm gonna make sure that as few people as possible die in this stupid fight."
Ion regarded me coolly for a few moments in a manner that reminded me of Heathcliff a little bit, and it was irking me. "I'll believe you, for now," he finally stated. "But the moment you give me a reason to disbelieve you- it's the moment you die."
Finally having been goaded enough to retaliate, I let a smirk crawl across my face as I said, "Still mad that I tricked all of you?"
"Why, you-!"
"You really oughta be angry with yourself," I chortled, Angel now holding him back while Sinon moved closer to my side. "I've said it to the others, but it must be eating you up inside; the fact that while I was killing people, you acted like you were better, or more virtuous than me. And then when it came down to it, you sold your soul for the chance at an early release- which really just makes you pathetic."
"That's it!" Ion shouted, just before Deathcalibur slammed into the ground between the two of us, stopping everyone in their tracks.
Slowly, the four of us turned to see my sister, dark fire smoldering in her sapphire eyes as she lowered the arm that she had used to hurl the monstrous blade. "Play nice, Brother," she warned me. To Ion, she added, "Next time, it's your head that gets split in two."
The boy trembled, but he managed to say, "You've never killed anyone. Why start now?"
"So that Mataras doesn't have to carry another death on his conscience," she stated flatly, loud enough for everyone to hear. "I won't let him do it, save for one person that has it coming."
Both Angel and Ion looked rattled now, as did a lot of the other players present. The guild leaders had known about her hardened personality for a little while now, but many of the people there remembered Saphira as a cheerful, compassionate girl that always defended a person's right to have a second chance, even if it was their second-hundredth chance. Even I, who had been aware of it the longest, still found myself caught off-guard by how fast she could change her smile into a scowl that could kill.
Before anyone could comment on the matter, the sound of wind chimes announced the arrival of the KOB's command unit, consisting of Heathcliff, Godfrey, and a couple of other players whose names I couldn't remember. "Are we all here?" the gray-haired man asked without preamble.
When he received a chorus of affirmations, he nodded and turned around while holding up a corridor crystal, one that would presumably take us close to the boss' lair. As he did, Ion gave me a look that told me things were far from finished between us, which was fine by me. As long as he doesn't try to take me out during the boss fight, he can yell at me all he wants later.
I heard the sound of metal leaving stone, followed by my sister muttering, "Nice job, keeping your head down."
"Let's just kill the stupid boss so we can go home."
I received a grunt in response before we stepped through the portal that Heathcliff had opened, along with the rest of our guild and the Assault Team. We came into the dungeon about fifty meters away from the giant double doors that led into the boss chamber, but we quickly moved closer, Litrosh flying in to land on my shoulder while we made room for the rest of the group.
The second we walked into the tunnel, I felt a chill go down my spine, and my gut began to coil with tension. I exchanged a look with Sinon, her face telling me that she felt it, too. "Anyone else feel like someone just stepped on their grave?" I asked in a lowered tone.
"Oh good, it's not just me," Kiriha said with a nervous smile.
"The place does give me the creeps," Rivka admitted as we gathered into a small huddle with the others.
"All right guys, Silica, Philia, Rivka, Sinon, and Sachi are gonna hang back to lend us support when we call for it," Kirito informed us. "The rest of us will be up front, leading the charge with the KOB and HDA. Keep an eye on your health meters- the second you go to yellow, you switch out. We can't use crystals for instant restoration, but potions will still work. We're about to step into it, guys, but it's been a real pleasure getting to fight alongside all of you so far."
"Save the 'in case we die' crap for the top floor," I said with a grin and light shove on his shoulder. "We're not dying here- not while I'm around." Heathcliff's booming voice began to echo in the hallway, so I quickly murmured just loud enough for them to hear, "Watch each other's backs, fight well, and most importantly, survive."
The crowd around us let out a resounding war cry, and we knew that the time was up. Turning to see Klein and Agil grinning at us with their weapons drawn, the shorter man said, "Don't die, okay guys? We're goin' out for drinks after this is over, and I'm buyin'."
"Ha!" Agil guffawed. "I'm about to make a fortune on today's drops- no way I'm missing out on that."
"Hey, if Klein's buying, I'm all for winning," Kiriha grinned. "Kirito and I found this restaurant on floor seventy-one that serves the best meat pies."
"Hey, isn't that the place that costs like five thousand col a dish?!"
"You're buying, so what do we care?" Philia giggled, causing Klein's face to fall.
Before any more banter could be exchanged, the doors let out a booming sound, which indicated that they were completely open, and awaiting our entrance. "Go!" Heathcliff commanded, and we charged, war cries in our throats, and the beating of war drums in our chests.
At least, until we found ourselves on a massive stone disk with nothing at the edges but a sheer drop into darkness, though I could see the walls a fair distance beyond the edge of our foot room, so we weren't technically in a void. Problem was, we couldn't see the boss anywhere.
Weird, I thought with a frown. When we found a boss room like this in the Hollow Area, the stupid thing appeared almost immediately.
The moment that the last person had entered the chamber, and our shouts had died away, there was another booming sound, and we turned around to see that the entrance had simply vanished. Well, we're committed, now, I thought grimly. Where is-?
There was a sound- a familiar one that dried out my throat and made my hands tremble ever so slightly. "Sinon?" I whispered. "Strea? Tell me I'm just hearing things."
"I wish I could, but you're not," my partner answered, sounding every bit as stressed as I did.
"Ditto," Strea said with a shaky voice. "Only… I don't see him." The sound repeated itself, a wet hissing, and dry rattling that echoed like death on the move. "Mataras…?"
On pure instinct, my eyes drifted upward, and I froze, just for an instant. Kirito didn't seem to notice though, because he put his back to me and asked, "So you guys have fought something like this before?"
"Yeah, except it was smaller, and it didn't have five health bars," I answered tightly.
"Wait, what?" Kiriha asked as she turned toward me, the sounds getting a little louder now. "How do you know how big the boss… is…? Oh, frack." As she had been speaking, her eyes had drifted upwards, and now she too saw the face of death.
"Up above!" Kirito suddenly shouted, jerking everyone's attention toward the ceiling, just in time for the boss to let out a piercing scream that would haunt us in many nightmares to come.
"Skull Reaper?!" Yuuki shrieked as she read its name.
The title couldn't have been more accurate. It was like I remembered, and worse. This walking, crawling skeleton of a giant centipede was armed with thicker bones and four scythes, all of which were way bigger than the ones that I had fought against before. The four eyes in the elongated skull blazed with fury as it let out another horrifying scream and detached itself from the ceiling, heading on a collision course toward the biggest cluster of players.
"MOVE!"I roared, shoving the nearest player to get him running. Many of us had been paralyzed with fright, and that was what would kill us faster than anything else. To my comrades, I added, "Get going!" Giving one more player a massive shove to the back with my foot, I then took off in the opposite direction, in order to follow the direction that my guild was taking.
The impact of the boss hitting the stone platform was sufficient to knock several of us off-balance, myself included. The room immediately glowed a deathly orange, and I could practically taste the stench of decay and rot that now permeated the area. In that moment, I somehow knew- even if the boss fight against Kayaba on the hundredth floor would be the hardest one, this monster would be the one to kill the most players in a boss fight in all of Aincrad. The legs alone put the body of the beast at eight feet tall, and that wasn't counting the four arms that sat between the head and the abdomen, putting the thing at the height of five men stacked atop one another.
"Mataras, get down!" Not bothering to see who had given the order, I threw myself onto the floor and heard something heavy whistle over my head- one of the boss' arm-scythes, I realized. Right after that, Yuuki charged in from the side, scooped me up bridal style, and got me to relative safety.
"You're quite the damsel in distress," she teased me as she set me down.
I would have smiled if I hadn't been in time to see two of the HDA members get chopped in half by another one of the boss' blades, both of them dead before they hit the ground. One hit?!
"Crap, those guys were tanks!" Agil shouted. "We are so dead!"
"No, we're not!" Saphira howled, her sword lighting up bright green as she charged right at the boss, causing my heart to leap into my throat.
"Hey!" I shouted at her as I readied my own sword and charged in after her, my eyes tracking the every movement of the four scythes. "You can't be reckless, that's my job!"
"Someone needs to get this party started!" she growled as she swung Deathcalibur twice, halting the progress of the deadly arms on both occasions, causing the boss to hiss angrily at her. Following up on this, I slid underneath the belly of the beast and started hacking away at the inner spine, one of its weak spots.
"Sinon!" I shouted, hoping that she could hear me. "Blind him as best you can!"
"You got it!"
"Litrosh, attack," I ordered my familiar, which was flying alongside me. "Target: eyes. Remain until breath is exhausted, then return to Sinon for rest. Repeat until monster is dead." The orange dragon growled in confirmation that it understood the directive, and immediately took off to carry out its instructions. I doubted that he would do any significant damage, but he was small enough that I also believed that he would be difficult for the boss to strike him down. Plus his fire could help keep it blinded to our movements more effectively than Sinon's arrows could on their own.
"Heathcliff!" I heard Kirito shout as the Skull Reaper began to move again, forcing me to try and keep up as I continued to cut at its underside. "You and my guild need to deal with the scythes! Everyone else should attack it in turns from the side!"
Whang!
"A sound strategy," the man grunted, having apparently used his shield to block one of the blades. Raising his voice, he shouted, "Do as he says!" Tense relations or not, Kirito was a good strategist, and I knew that Heathcliff respected his opinions on matters of combat, if not on personal matters.
"Watch out for the tail!" I warned them as the other players began to line up in order to take their turns attacking the monster that had already killed five of our number in the few seconds since the battle began. "If this is anything like the last one that my guild fought, then it's slower than the rest of him, but it'll be just as bad as if he hit you with an arm!"
"Got anything else for us?!" Klein shouted as he dove in between the legs in order to use his katana alongside my Blazing Revolution.
"Weak spots are his belly and the joints on his legs!" I shouted, trying to be heard by as many people as possible above the din of battle. "He likes moving in spirals, so when he gets restless, make sure that you don't get trampled! Axes and lances are best for getting the joints, leave the belly to swords!"
"You got it!" Agil bellowed as he charged in, smashing one of the beast's legs enough to nearly snap it off. "Hold still, baby!"
"God, protect us," I muttered as a quick prayer. We were going to need all the protection, divine intervention, and sheer, dumb luck that we could get if we were going to have a chance at fighting our way out of this hellhole in particular.
The boss fight quickly devolved into a madhouse after that. Despite our best efforts, and the fact that my Fifth Commandment had faced a monster similar to it before, the rest of the Assault Team was barely managing to hold their own. I lost count of the number of times that my friends and I had to run interference for another party, and even with our speed and power, we couldn't save everyone.
Over the course of an hour, we lost more than a dozen players, all of which had fought tooth and nail for nearly two years in order to secure their freedom. The more of them that died, the angrier I became, and the more vicious my attacks grew. Yuuki's dual swords carved massive gashes in the boss alongside my fiery weapon, and Saphira worked flawlessly in tandem with Heathcliff's Divine Blade to keep the scythes at bay as best they could. Sinon made sure to keep its vision impaired for as long as she was able, but it still had too many appendages that it could use as weapons for us to effectively cripple it by keeping it blind. Still, the five of us that had our unique skills certainly made the difference in the nightmare of a battle- modesty aside, the rest of Assault Team would have sustained much heavier losses if not for our presence.
Strea, Rain, Kiriha, and Kirito certainly contributed their fair share of battle damage to the monster, while the rest of our guild mates made certain to distribute potions to those that needed it, as well as taking turns switching in whenever another player needed a break. This also sometimes left them exposed to the greater danger, and there was one incident in particular that nearly stopped my heart.
Rivka had taken point for one of Klein's men, near the rear of the Skull Reaper, her lance whirling at high speeds as she sought to do as much damage as she possibly could while she had the chance. Unfortunately, this also meant that she was too distracted to notice a certain scream that the boss would let out whenever it was getting ready to charge in a sweep around the room, a movement that had killed seven men in forty minutes. Even more unfortunate was the fact that she was within close striking range of the tail, one of the deadlier tools at the disposal of the boss.
Knowing that there was no time to warn her before the boss made its attack run, I yanked a dagger out of my belt and hurled it at her with a precision born of many fights and countless hours of practice. The heavy knife slammed into her short cape in the space between her arm and abdomen, yanking her backwards with a loud yelp- and just in time to avoid being slashed by the passing tail.
I glared at the belly of the beast until it had passed me by, whereupon I made a mad dash for where Rivka had been thrown. "Sorry," I apologized. "I saw that you were gonna get hit, so I-"
"It's okay," she said a little breathlessly, even as her cape disintegrated, and my knife was left behind in the stone. "Oh, that's bad."
"Why?"
"That cape gave me a significant defense boost," she explained as she got to her feet, and I took my knife out of the floor. "Without it, I'm going to be at a higher risk."
"Can't have that," I replied as I noticed that the boss was now on the far side of the chamber. Deciding that I had earned a short break, I opened my menu, knowing that I had to have something that could replace the piece- after all, it was my fault that the garment was now destroyed.
My eyes and fingers moved quickly before I found one item in particular, which I hesitated over. Granted, it was one of my better pieces of equipment, but I hadn't worn it in a very long time, given my sentimental attachment to the garb. This isn't the time, I told myself as I summoned the piece out of my inventory, and materialized it in my hands before holding it out to Rivka. "Here," I told her. "Put this on. It should provide good defense and speed enhancements, if memory serves."
Her eyes widened a little bit as she accepted a dark red cloak that she immediately threw around her shoulders. "Is this one of yours?" she asked as she moved to pick up her spear, which had fallen a few feet away from us.
I swallowed past a small lump in my throat as I answered, "It was Crimson's." She stiffened in surprise and turned back to me, but I didn't feel like talking at length at the moment. So I told her, "It looks good on you." Without waiting for a reply, I dashed off, right back into the madness of battle.
It seemed like an eternity of pain, constant stress, and screams of the dying before we heard Heathcliff announce that the boss was on its last leg. "Everyone, rush him!" he ordered.
Every player, even the ones that had been hanging back for need of health recovery, swooped in, ready for the nightmare to be over. The Moonlit Black Cats led the charge against the beast's front, ignoring the half-hearted swipe that it took at us as soon as we came within range.
O dread creature that seeks to scourge, your obstructions will not be allowed! My sword blazed hotter than ever, sparks flying as I leaped high and pierced its skull, causing it to scream its hatred of me.
"Starburst Stream!" Yuuki screamed as her most powerful attack ripped through the underside of our enemy.
Fear me, for I am the Red Swordsman! The Skull Reaper bucked its head, throwing me off, though I manage to aim for its spine, securing a rough landing.
"Nova Ascension!" Rain added, her reverse style attacks nothing but a blur in my peripheral vision.
I now lay thee waste with the Blazing Revolution, and expel thy vast defilement!
"Phantom Break!" That was Saphira, Deathcalibur humming its deadly tune at her behest.
I pierce thee! Gathering my legs underneath me, I aimed my sword for the base of the creature's skull.
"Takagi Pacification Shot!" Sinon called, sending forth a magenta arrow that struck with thunderous force.
"SUNDER!" The final bellow erupted from my chest as I rammed the fiery sword into a crevice on the back of the Reaper's head, sending it crashing into the stone beneath before it was at long last obliterated, and the traditional 'Congratulations' word appeared in bright, glowing letters above us, even as the room itself lost that ominous orange glow that had been present since the battle began.
That might have been a wonderful sign for us, if we had any inclination to celebrate. A set of stairs materialized and led up to a new doorway that hadn't been there a moment ago, but none of us had the energy to ascend just yet. For the most part, we all sank down to the ground, many of us leaning back on our comrades for mutual support.
As I let my sword rest on my shoulder, and found myself leaning back on a tired Kiriha, I asked of no one in particular, "How many?"
There was a sound of a menu opening in the oppressive silence that had descended on us, followed by Kirito saying, "Eighteen players didn't make it."
"Damn…" Klein cursed. "And we still got twenty-five floors left to go."
I sighed to myself as I held a warm scale in my hand, titled 'Litrosh's Heart'. My dragon had unfortunately taken a bad hit from one of the scythe-arms halfway through the battle, and I had to scramble to pick up his remains before someone accidentally kicked it over the edge of the battle ground. I had three days to revive him, so I wasn't totally worried, but I was still mad at the boss for having taken him out at all.
"How are we ever gonna make it to the top?" Agil gasped from where he lay. The man had taken some bad hits that resulted in several close calls, so he had to be feeling even more beat than those of us that had managed to keep our health above the red zone.
That's probably the first boss fight we've had where every single one of us came out with their HP below the green, I thought as my eyes drifted around the room, eventually settling on Heathcliff. Although he looked tired, he was still standing tall, his health somehow still in the green zone, despite the fierce pounding that we had all just endured.
I guess he really is the best player in SAO, I thought tiredly before my head felt a dull ache toward the crown of my skull- a sign that I had come to recognize as a memory prepared to surface…
"We've got him, Mataras."
"We've got who?"
"Only the mastermind behind this entire death trap." Crimson was smiling at me, a truly triumphant expression that neither of us had worn in quite some time. "Akihiko Kayaba is here, in SAO, and Strea and I know who he is."
"You're serious?!" I asked, feeling dumbfounded. "Why?! Why would he come into a world where literally every single person in it hates him?!"
"No clue, but he's clever- he obscured his identity as someone we'd never expect- one of the men on the front lines trying to clear the game," Crimson chuckled, clearly enjoying my sense of surprise. "According to the data entries, he plans to turn tail on the Assault Team once they clear floor 95, and then await them as the final boss in the Ruby Palace. Until then, he has to be protected by the system, because if he bites it in the field before he planned it, the game ends prematurely. Also, there's a reason that our good friend in the KOB, Heathcliff, is marked as a test candidate for the Hollow Area, though the system has been prevented from forcing him over."
"Prevented?" I inquired, understanding finally beginning to dawn on me. "You don't mean-?"
"Heathcliff is none other than the mastermind behind this whole damn place…"
I felt my lips curl into a snarl as I finally regained the piece of the puzzle that I needed to secure our escape, once and for all. No wonder his health has never dropped into the yellow, I mused as I tightened my grip on my sword while looking to my left and catching Sinon's eye. Now I just need to prove it to the others…
I blinked twice in rapid succession, and her eyebrows descended toward one another as she reached for the dagger in her leg sheathe. Next to her, Strea got the same message, so she shifted her legs underneath her in order to be able to spring into action at the first opportunity. With the slightest jerk of my head, I rolled my eyes over toward Heathcliff, who was still standing alone, his gaze fixed upon the stairs that would lead us to the next floor.
Glancing back at my partners, I saw Sinon raise an eyebrow, as if to ask, 'Are you sure?'
Nodding once, I quietly got up into a crouch, my sword in my right hand. Time to do what I should have done months ago, I growled to myself, even as Strea mimicked my movements.
"Mataras?" Kiriha asked as she noticed my absence. "What are you-?"
"HEATHCLIFF!" I roared, startling just about everyone in the room, including the normally unflappable leader of SAO's top guild. I bolted right for him, my sword lighting up with murderous intent, even as Strea launched herself forward, her broadsword going back up high over her head.
Before either of us could get to him, Sinon's knife flashed toward him, forcing him to turn and block with his shield, sending the weapon skittering away on the stone ground. I gave him no time to recover, snapping my blade toward his neck from the side, forcing him to turn even further toward me, and put his shield up in order to avoid taking any damage from my sword. As I glared at him over the rim of his cross-shaped shield, I saw something in those cold gray eyes of his- something like disappointment, if I wasn't mistaken.
Both Sinon and I had failed to damage him- but that wasn't really our goal. Now Strea, having leaped over Godfrey and another KOB member, brought her sword down on Heathcliff's head with thunderous force, the blow powerful enough to split him in two if it had connected. Of course, as Crimson had predicted, her huge weapon was halted in place by a set of purple hexagons that sent her stumbling backward from the recoil.
Finally, Heathcliff showed surprise as he shoved me back and stood apart from the rest of us, even as another purple glyph floated over his head with the announcement, 'Immortal Object'. It was just like when the system was forced to protect an object or an NPC integral to the game, and it was the final proof that I needed. Giving vent to a smug grin, I sheathed my sword and began to clap slowly, making the movement as mocking as I possibly could, ignoring the murmurs of surprise and looks of alarm that were being given to me and the guild commander.
"Well, well, well," I chortled as I let my hands fall to my side. "Look at that. My Intel was good, even if my memory needed a jumpstart."
"Mataras!" Kirito demanded as he lifted his sword and levelled it at Heathcliff. "Is that who I think it is?"
"Ladies and gentleman, I give you none other than Akihiko Kayaba, creator of SAO, and the son of a bitch that locked us in here these last two years," I announced. "If you'll pay attention to that little sign above his head, you'll note that the good commander has been pretty much designated as invincible by the system. Why, you ask? Well, how else could he possibly ensure that he would be alive to face us as the final boss on the top floor while he fought alongside us?" Turning to look the man in the eye directly, I asked him with a challenging tone, "Well, Kayaba? Am I wrong?"
"…Just for the sake of my curiosity, how did you figure it out?" he asked, his tone as calm and collected as ever.
"Dumb design on your part, really," I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. "I gotta ask, why is it that you put GM consoles in a place where a regular player could easily get to them?"
"I would hardly call you and I regular players," Heathcliff replied with a slight smile. "And I would hardly call the Hollow Area easily accessible." Those last words of his stopped me cold.
"…You knew about that?" I finally managed to ask, aware of the tension building up in the room from the players watching us.
"Of course. I had my suspicions for some time, but they were confirmed the moment that I heard about you and your twin with the same unique skill- a skill that only one person should have possessed in Aincrad."
"Then why let me use it the way that I did?"
"It wasn't my place to interfere," Heathcliff shrugged, instantly confusing me. Seeing my bewilderment, he went on to say, "I designed the Cardinal System to act on its own, without outside interference- and that included my own designs. If the system decided to give you access to the Hollow Area and its faculties, who am I to argue? So long as you continued to operate within the absolute dictates of SAO, I saw no reason to interfere with your plans. Though I will admit, I am most impressed with the way that you used the testing grounds- you far surpassed my expectations of you. I never really expected Dragon Blood to be used so effectively, but then, such plot twists are part of what make video games so much fun to play."
"No right to interfere, huh?" I growled, remembering Yui, and the pain that she had suffered because of his decision to lock her away. Strea didn't have it as bad as the first girl, but she certainly hadn't been able to fulfill her primary directives until I came along with extenuating circumstances. "What about the MHCP's? Pretty sure you messed with their free will."
"I didn't think that their services were necessary, so I altered their parameters before SAO even began," Heathcliff answered. "Since my announcement on the first day, I have lived in Aincrad the same way as all of you- save for my immortal status, of course."
"Of course," I spat angrily.
Glancing around at everyone, some of them with their weapons drawn, he smiled again and confessed. "To answer the question that you're all dying to know, it is true. I am Akihiko Kayaba- the creator and final boss of SAO."
As if they had been waiting for him to confirm it, every player in the area aimed their weapons at the man, who remained as aloof and calm as ever. And why shouldn't he be? I thought. He's invincible, unless we can somehow deactivate his immortality. Strea might be able to do it from a GM console, but that would take time that we don't have, even if she could.
Before I could ask my next question, Kirito spoke up. "So the strongest player in the game suddenly turns around and becomes the final enemy? Seems pretty cliché."
"I like that angle, myself," Kayaba shrugged again. "But you know, I always thought that it would be your guild, Kirito, that would come to stand against me in the end. The Fifth Commandment was powerful, no doubt, but they lacked the ability to work with others, and thus they never could have gotten to me on their own."
"We would have just taken you out on our own if you didn't have a damn cheat code in place," I growled.
"Hmm, I suppose that's true," Kayaba replied with another half-smile.
"How dare you…?" Godfrey demanded, fairly trembling with rage. "We placed our hopes in you… Our loyalty… How dare you betray us?!" Raising his axe high, he charged at his commander, intent on destroying him once and for all.
With a slight sigh, Kayaba opened his menu and punched in a single command that suddenly left everyone in the room paralyzed, save for me, Sinon, and Strea, and none of us were stupid enough to try making a move against him. Glancing down at Godfrey where he had crashed into the ground, I asked him, "Really? Didn't you just see us try that, not two minutes ago?" When all I received was an unintelligible curse from within the man's beard, I scoffed and muttered, "Seriously, what kind of herculean leap in logic did you make to come to the conclusion that it would work if you did it?"
"Mataras!" Saphira grunted from where she had been forced to collapse next to Rivka, who was looking up at me with worry in her eyes. "Not helping!"
"Hey, seeing as he's probably gonna kill all of us to cover this up, I figure that the least I can do is annoy a few people before I have to go."
"Kill you?" Kayaba asked, looking offended. "I wouldn't do that- it's hardly sporting. No, I'll release you as soon as I've taken my leave, don't you worry."
"If that's the case, why haven't you frozen us, too?" Sinon asked him suspiciously.
"Because like Mataras said, you all would have defeated me if I were a normal player, and you figured out who I am," the man answered as he rammed his shield into the stone hard enough that it could stand on its own. "In light of that, I feel that you deserve something in the way of compensation, so… I'm going to give you three a chance."
"A chance at what?" I challenged him, though I hoped I knew where this was going.
"You have the opportunity to defeat me, right here, right now," Kayaba replied. "I will deactivate my immortality, and two of you will be free to fight me to the death- you may choose which pair. If I lose, the conditions for your release will be fulfilled, and all the players in SAO will be logged out immediately."
A wicked smile crossed my face as I heard his offer, and I felt my raging blood begin to boil like it hadn't since I had completed my mission to wipe out the red players of SAO. "Sinon, Strea, what do you think?" I asked, already knowing what their answer would be.
"If we wait until we're all allowed to fight him on the top floor, we'd have a better chance at not getting killed," Sinon answered slowly. "But if we win now, no one else dies on account of him."
"I'm with her," Strea chimed in. "You two should try to end this now."
I cocked my head at her, my eyes searching her crimson orbs for answers. "You sure you don't want to take a shot at him?" I asked her. What I didn't ask, but I'm sure she knew I wanted to know, was why she didn't seem inclined to take revenge against the man that would have trapped her in absolute isolation until she fell apart like Yui had, if it weren't for my arrival.
"I'm sure," she nodded resolutely. "You and Sinon have the best chance to win out of the possible pairings between us."
"Hey, hold on a sec!" Kirito called out to us as Strea sat down, ready to accept the paralysis that Kayaba would no doubt inflict on her in order to prevent a surprise attack. "You guys can't do this! He'll kill you!"
"Think about what you're doing!" Rivka begged. "We stand a better chance at surviving if we regroup and fight him another day!"
"I don't care!" I barked, shutting them both up as I kept up my glare at our enemy. "I should have told you who he was a long time ago, but because I didn't, more players that didn't deserve to die, did. If I don't do my best to take him out now, that's just as bad as what I did after the Laughing Coffin raid! You're not talking me out of it, so just shut up!"
Silence reigned after that, even Kayaba looking surprised at the level of vehemence that I had directed at my friends. Ignoring this, I told him, "Sinon and I agree to your terms. But I have one more request, if I'm allowed."
"And why should I grant you that?" my enemy asked curiously.
"Because I'm pretty sure you supplied PoH with the poison dagger that killed me," I replied shortly. "My guess is that he didn't know who you were when you gave it to him, but I know that weapon is still exclusive to the Hollow Area, and of course I know that none of my friends gave it to him. You'd be the only other person with access, so…" I shrugged, feeling that I had explained enough. "So much for not interfering, eh?"
"Hmm," the man smiled again. "Perhaps, but I believe that everyone is entitled to a little hypocrisy in their lifetime. Very well, what is your request?"
"If I lose, and this game continues on, you'll release the MHCP's from their prisons, however many of them there are," I answered. "They've been tortured long enough."
My request seemed to surprise him, but he also surprised me when he simply nodded and said, "Very well. Out of respect for your skill and dedication, I will allow them to roam freely in Aincrad, should you fall here. Oh, and feel free to say your goodbyes while you can."
"Good," I said, feeling satisfied. I gave Kirito and Sachi a quick wink before I started walking forward, my sword lighting up as I did so. Feeling like I should say something, just in case this was it, I added, "Thanks for taking care of Rivka, both of you. I wish you many, happy long years together."
"Hey!" Saphira shouted at me, drawing my attention to her. She held my gaze for a few seconds before her face softened a bit and she said, "You better not lose- I'll kill you if you do." In front of me, Kayaba had finished paralyzing Strea, and was now beginning to deactivate his immortality.
"Fine by me, just promise that you won't turn into a homicidal maniac if I do die," I replied with a crooked grin. "The 'Blue Swordmaiden' doesn't sound very intimidating."
"Screw that noise, I'll be the 'Blue Reaper'," she shot back, causing my smile to widen just a little bit. "Now get us out of this stupid game."
"Yes ma'am," I said with a mock salute, using my sword. Looking at Klein, I sobered my face up and said, "Sorry I let you down, man. You deserved better than getting stabbed in the back by me."
"Get us outta here, and we'll call it even," he said with a strained smile. "I'm buyin' us all dinner when we get to the other side, got it?" I realized that in spite of everything that had happened between us, he was still worried about me, and I would have to be a monster to deny that it touched my heart.
Touching my finger to my brow, I then moved on to exchange a quick round of good-byes with Agil and most of the others in my guild. Some of them looked worried for us, like Silica and Philia- which surprised me, seeing as I thought that she didn't like me much- while Yuuki and Kiriha gave me confident smiles and assurances that they knew I had it in me to win.
When it came time for me to say goodbye to Rivka, I almost found myself at a loss for words. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and the world around us seemed to fall away as I said, "I'm sorry. I really wish that our lives were different. I know we would have been happy together, if we'd had the chance."
"We still have a chance!" she shouted at me. "Let him go this time, and we can start over! We can take him down together, when we're all ready! Please don't go!"
"Sorry," I said past the lump in my throat as I turned away from her. "But I can't turn back now- not even for you." Ignoring her cries of protest that threatened to break my heart, I walked until I was standing not five meters away from Akihiko Kayaba. Looking past him to meet Sinon's eyes, I asked, "Ready?"
"Of course."
"Then let's do this, Kayaba," I said as I raised my sword into a fighting position.
"Your move," he said in a challenging tone as he drew his blade form his shield and held both of them at the ready.
Begin Song: Spin and Burst by Yasuharu Takanashi
In response, Sinon and I transformed into blurs that sped around him to opposite sides before we smashed into his defenses, the air rippling with concussive force as our blades met, and his shield countered my partner's dagger. Heathcliff raised an eyebrow at our speed as he mused, "You've been holding back?"
"It's easier to go all-out against a person as opposed to a boss in our case," I growled. "Let's show him what a bad idea trapping us in this game was, eh, Sinon?"
"Agreed."
My sword blazed with white flames as we retreated a full leap in order to give ourselves space before we charged right back at him, determined to break down his seemingly insurmountable Divine Blade skill. He gave ground step-by-step before our vicious assaults, each strike perfectly timed and calculated to give him no time to formulate a strategy for defense or offense. Our blows cracked the stone beneath our feet, and created shockwaves powerful enough to roll some nearby players away from us, much to their fright, though we paid them no mind.
At one point, Sinon nearly tripped on a discarded lance, and Kayaba used that as an opportunity to smack her back with his massive shield, sending her flying away from us. Undeterred, she hurled one of her daggers at him, taking him in the head while he was busy trying to fend me off.
To his credit, he didn't stop in his duel with me, merely using his own sword to cut the knife out of his head before using the large blade to slash me in the leg. This forced me to put my fighting instincts into overdrive, as I didn't exactly have health points to spare, and I resumed my furious assault on his sword and shield. After a dozen or so traded attacks, I managed to stab him in the foot and pin him in place with my sword. Once again, he seemed completely undisturbed by the development, raising his sword, which glowed bright red as he executed what was sure to be a killing blow to my face.
Thankfully, I still had help, which Sinon reminded him of with an arrow to the back that sent him rolling a dozen meters away from me, tearing my sword out of the ground and sending it clattering into a space between us. As I turned to start running, my partner was already moving, using her bow like a quarterstaff to smack Kayaba's shield, while also blinding his field of vision, allowing me ample time to recover my weapon and close in on him again.
Several more strikes were exchanged, this time involving arrows instead of knives on Sinon's part. At one point, having traded attacks for a good ten seconds without any damage being dealt, Sinon and I both leaped back to give ourselves enough space to formulate a different attack strategy. Fortunately for us, Kayaba wasn't as agile as we were, which meant that if he wanted to charge at us, we'd have plenty of time to continue a retreat.
Sinon raised her bow and drew an arrow that glowed green, prompting me to mutter, "Don't hit anyone else."
"I'm offended you think I'm that careless," she grinned as she aimed upward. "You ready?"
"Who do you think I am?"
"Heh." Sinon released the shot, the one shaft splitting into two dozen bolts that arced high in the air before heading back down for our enemy, who actually looked a little surprised by the unorthodox use of the skill he had designed.
As such, his gaze was inevitably drawn upward, and sufficiently distracting him long enough for me to make my move. As he unleashed a sweeping sword skill designed to attack multiple enemies at once, which proved to be sufficient for beating away the deadly missiles, he left himself open to brutal lunging stab from me that took him in the chest, hard enough that he let out a grunt of surprise and pain. As the Blazing Revolution exited his body, I side-kicked his shield to throw him off-balance, even as he hit me with the pommel of his sword, sending me rolling on the ground, my sword having been torn from my grasp.
Even this was not enough to disorient me- I had spent over a year fighting people of all sorts, and winning every time, so I was not about to just give him an opportunity to turn the tides of battle. I had seen a flash of green and white while I was tumbling, so I swiveled my body until my back was pressed to the ground, and my legs were bunched up against my chest. I waited until I saw Sinon leap over me before I kicked out, my feet meeting hers' with perfect timing, and spring boarding her into the air, where she unleashed another high-powered shot at Kayaba, who was ready for an aerial attack this time.
He raised his shield to block the heavy bolt, and succeeded in doing so, but I was back on my feet again by now. With dragon fire in my hands and feet, I caught up to the man and began to pummel him, making sure to stay inside the reach of his sword and shield, aware of how close his health bar was to the red zone. Punches, knee strikes, and elbow smashes all collided with his armor, pushing his health points ever closer to his death.
Sinon fired three more shots from her bow before she was out of ammunition, and she drew a dagger once again, moving in to support me at close range. She stabbed him in the neck while jumping on his back to throw him off-balance, and giving me a quick breather. Kayaba grunted once, and then smacked her face with his heavy shield, throwing her onto her back behind him, not two feet away from the ledge- which would be his final mistake, as it turned out.
Realizing where she was, she put her hands on the ground behind her head and sprung off with as much force as she could muster, slamming his back with a double kick that lifted him a few feet off the ground. "Do it!" she shouted at me.
I needed no further invitation. "Akihiko Kayaba…!" I shouted as I put every ounce of my SPD stat into my legs to carry me forward while drawing my right hand back. He looked down at me just in time for my fist to collide with his face as I bellowed, "You have failed Aincrad!"
The last thing I saw on his face was surprise, which melted into a smile of satisfaction right before he went over the edge of the battleground. Two seconds later, we all heard a shattering sound effect, followed by everyone being released from their paralysis. As a cloud of blue-green shards floated up from where Kayaba had fallen, I helped Sinon to her feet, huge smiles on both of our faces.
"We did it," I told her once she was up.
"No," she said with a negative shake of her head before she pulled me into a tight hug, which I gladly returned. "You did it." As the people around us began to shout and cheer in celebration of the fact that our jailer was gone, and we could finally be free, I felt a genuine smile crease my face as relief washed over me that it was all finally over- for real, this time.
"Mataras, the Red Swordsman… you have saved Aincrad."
Kirito: Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Mataras: Lemme guess- that felt like a solid ending to the Aincrad arc.
Asuna: Uh... yeah. I thought that this was going to floor 100.
Mataras: It is.
Asuna: Pretty sure that it can't.
Mataras: Pretty sure that it can.
Kirito: But you just killed Kayaba! You beat the game!
Mataras: I did kill Kayaba. That doesn't mean that it's game over.
Saphira: So what, are you going the Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment route? It was a glitch that makes us all stay in the game?
Mataras: Spoilers. You have to wait for the next-
Asuna: Chapter, yeah, we know. When's that happening?
Mataras: Well, since we're all being shut in due to Covid-19, probably not that long.
Kirito: I'm sensing a 'but' coming...
Saphira: Mataras also has a new audio series/fanfiction that he's starting up.
Asuna: How much free time have you had lately?!
Mataras: A lot. I'm blessed enough to have a wife with a career that retains job security during this troubling time, so I can continue my writing interests without worry.
Kirito: What story on you on now? Is it another SAO/crossover? Those seem to be your forte.
Mataras: No, not this time. I'm now making a plus-ultra effort with a story that will be titled 'Your Hero Academia', which I am very excited for. The audio version of the prologue is already up on my YouTube channel, and I'm sure you can guess what the source material is. Before you start worrying, no, this will not affect production Shattered Fragment, and I do very much hope to see some of you guys there.
Saphira: You've promised that before. How do we know you're not gonna fall behind again?
Mataras: Fair enough, but like I said- I've got a lot of free time now, and I am determined to make use of it. If I don't have a new chapter for this story out in the next three weeks, you can assume that I've been talking out of my ass.
Asuna: We're holding you to that.
Kirito: So you said that the audio version of the prologue is already up on YouTube. When's the readable version coming to Fanfiction?
Mataras: April 4th, 2020. Saiyan Tail is also celebrating its 2nd birthday on the first of the month (not an April Fool's, I swear), so be sure to check that out if you're following my Fairy Tail x Dragon Ball crossover.
Saphira: Anything else? You're kinda unloading a lot on your followers here.
Mataras: When have I not? But no, that's it for now. Hope to see you all back again in a few weeks, and until then, stay healthy, all of you! Let me know if you or a family member are feeling ill, so that I can pray for you.
Until the next one.
